"We have this morning heard an accusation the source of which is
apparently Ricardo Patino, the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister suggesting
that we have bugged the Ecuadorian Embassy. This is completely untrue. The Surveillance Group do not and have never been engaged in any activities of this nature. We have not been contacted by any member of the Ecuadorian Government
and our first notification about this incident was via the press this
morning. This is a wholly untrue assertion."
A hidden microphone has been found inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is holed up, according to the country's foreign minister.
Ricardo Patiño said the device had been discovered a fortnight ago inside the office of the Ecuadorean ambassador, Ana Alban, while he was in the UK to meet Assange and discuss the whistleblower's plight with the British foreign secretary, William Hague.
"We regret to inform you that in our embassy in London we have found a hidden microphone," Patiño told a news conference in Quito on Tuesday.
"I didn't report this at the time because we didn't want the theme of our visit to London to be confused with this matter," he said.
"Furthermore, we first wanted to ascertain with precision the origin of this interception device in the office of our ambassador." (more) Good luck.
In other news... French company Spotter has developed an analytics tool that claims to have up to 80% accuracy in identifying sarcastic comments posted online.
Spotter says its clients include the Home Office, EU Commission and Dubai Courts. (more) We retract the last comment.
The U.S. could be signaling stepped-up prosecution of Chinese companies accused of stealing trade secrets as it filed criminal charges against one of China's largest wind-turbine manufacturers and two of its executives, experts said.
"Maybe five years ago, it was sexier to chase drug cases than trade-secret cases," said Benjamin Bai, a partner at Allen & Overy in Shanghai. However, "the political climate is brewing the perfect storm in the U.S. for prosecutions to increase."
A recent law strengthening the U.S. Economic Espionage Act will likely encourage more prosecutions, said Mr. Bai, who has represented U.S. clients on intellectual-property issues. (more)
The European Commission will sweep its offices for electronic listening devices and other security breaches following revelations of alleged U.S. surveillance programs targeting European leaders, a commission spokeswoman said Monday.
The allegations, reported Sunday by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, threaten to derail negotiations on a variety of issues with the United States, French President Francois Hollande said Monday...
Hollande's comments and the planned security sweep come amid building outrage in Europe over allegations that the National Security Agency had bugged EU offices in Washington and New York and conducted an "electronic eavesdropping operation" that tapped into an EU building in Brussels, Belgium. (more)
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The European Union has ordered a worldwide security sweep of all its premises following reports US intelligence has bugged its offices in Washington, Brussels and the United Nations. Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU's Executive Commission, "has instructed the competent commission services to proceed to a comprehensive ad hoc security sweep and check" in light of the most recent spying allegations leveled at the US, spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen told reporters. (more) Note: It is generally standard practice for government agencies (and at-risk businesses) to conduct Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM, or bug sweeps) on a regular basis. Check with your Security Department to see if your office is being inspected regularly.
A new system allows researchers to track up to three separate people through a wall, solely with the help of low-power Wi-Fi signals.
The Wi-Vi system relies on two antennas to broadcast Wi-Fi signals and a receiver to read them, according to the researchers’ paper. The Wi-Fi signals degrade in quality each time they pass through a wall, so the receiver must be prepared to pick up on very weak signals. It is also quickly overwhelmed if there are too many to sort through... Researchers think the Wi-Vi system could also be used to find survivors in destroyed buildings or count and track criminals. Compared to previous military-oriented tracking systems, Wi-Vi is cheap, compact and lightweight, which makes it practical for consumer uses such as personal safety. (more)
The number of wiretaps secured in federal criminal investigations jumped 71 percent in 2012 over the previous year, according to newly released figures.
Federal courts authorized 1,354 interception orders for wire, oral and electronic communications, up from 792 the previous year, according to the figures, released Friday by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. There was a 5 percent increase in state and local use of wiretaps in the same period. (more)
The Tin Foil Hat folks have upgraded for the 21st Century. New types of stealth clothing are being developed. They thwart video and infrared surveillance techniques.
TV Hat (More for video viewing rather than video stealth, but worth a peek :)
"What's a Reg Blank?" I hear you say... Reg is a "blank", a person not indexed in the government's database. (more) (video) He sez... "All day every day, making tomorrow seem like yesterday."
Need a Tin Foil Hat to go with all your new anti-there gear? Check here.
One of several surveillance-related games at E3, "Watch Dogs" casts players as Aiden Pearce, a vigilante who can tap into security cameras and listen in on phone calls across a virtual rendition of an automated Chicago...
The timing of "Watch Dogs" is remarkable in light of recent revelations about the National Security Agency's controversial data-collection programs. They were revealed in media stories by The Guardian and The Washington Post, leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Is "Watch Dogs" a case of a video game imitating life — or the other way around? (more)
A visit to a restroom is usually a private thing but some customers at a Texas restaurant say that’s not the case. This comes after one man discovered a security camera in the restroom of Wolfie’s restaurant in Lake Conroe.
It’s not the place you’d expect to be under surveillance but the management says it’s for safety. The cameras are high up above the door so customers do not see them until they are about to exit.
There is a sign posted in the hallway stating the reason for the cameras but legal experts say it should not be done.
Management was asked about the tactic and they say it’s because some customers have destroyed property.
They also said if patrons do not like the cameras they do not have to go to the restroom. (more)
The news media is overflowing with reports of "High Tech" car burglars. They appear to be opening locked cars while holding a "black box" which "has police all over the nation stumped as to how it works."
Here, at the Spybusters Countermeasures Compound, we believe the black box is nothing more than a radio signal jammer.
The thief is nearby when the person locks their car using a wireless fob. They interfere with the locking signal and the car never really locks. Once the owner walks away, they strike.
Spybusters Tip #543: When locking your car, make sure you test that it is really locked before walking way. This is especially important if you see anyone nearby. (sing-a-long)
Undercover video shot in May by a conservative activist shows two corporate distributors of free cell phones handing out the mobile devices to people who have promised to sell them for drug money, to buy shoes and handbags, to pay off their bills, or just for extra spending cash.
The 'Obama phone,' which made its ignominious YouTube debut outside a Cleveland, Ohio presidential campaign event last September, is a project of the Federal Communications Commission's 'Lifeline' program, which makes land line and mobile phones available to Americans who meet low-income requirements. Lifeline was a $2.19 billion program in 2012. (more)
Eunice Huthart, who says she worked as a stunt double for Angelina Jolie, has filed a lawsuit against News Corp. for intercepting her voice-mail messages.
The complaint was filed in California last week and is believed to be the first claim brought by a victim in the U.S. over the ongoing hacking scandal that has been haunting Rupert Murdoch's company.
Several thousands of people have been identified as phone hacking victims and News Corp. has already paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money. (more) (lawsuit)
An issue, previously fixed by Adobe in October 2011, has reappeared in Google Chrome and allows attackers to take control of webcams and microphones from Flash content. At its heart the problem is an old one: click-jacking.
The trick places a transparent Flash animation panel over an image and then makes the permissions dialog for accessing the webcam and microphone appear. All that is then needed is to convince the user to click on the right part of the image. In security consultant Egor Homakov's proof of concept this is done by using an image which suggests a possibly risque video is available for viewing and placing the play button where the "OK" button on the permissions dialog has been positioned. (more)
